In Comcast’s own marketing, they claim that “not only is the xFi Advanced Gateway one of the best performing gateways on the market, but it also comes with xFi – a simple, digital dashboard for Xfinity customers to control their home WiFi network.”

That makes sense, as in most routers or gateways you can buy commercially or from your internet service provider, you can login into a certain IP address and tweak settings, wireless channels, setup port forwarding, MAC address filtering, setup DMZ and many other things.

This new router, however, is a pain to tweak settings. Some settings need to be changed in the router itself, others you must login to your Xfinity account. Why? The user experience on this is very confusing, and will surely push away those who are more technically savvy who simply want to login to their router, make tweaks and move on. Why have two different portals? Could this be just a part of the router’s setup that has not been optimized yet, since the product is so new? My thinking is yes, but only time will tell.

What Am I Paying for It?

When I initially inquired over the phone and on social media, I never even got to the point of having the opportunity of asking how much the router is per month. I still don’t know. In the box, there was no invoice as to the cost, what my new bill would be per month or what the prorated charges for this month would be. Strange.

No Wi-Fi 6 Devices—A Clear Limitation in My Testing:

Clearly, there are very few devices that support Wi-Fi 6, and I don’t have any to test, so this is a big limitation in this review—guilty as charged. However, I had hoped to test what Comcast is marketing as a better performing router, better range and what should be a more consistent experience. At least for me, and I don’t pretend that my conditions or setup are the most ideal, I did not see that—in fact, it was worse in many cases. However, I was testing router to router, and in the same exact conditions in my home—no changes or tweaks in the setting. And at least for me, and how I use Comcast’s services, I was not impressed.

Final Thoughts:

As in all new networking and router products, new versions of firmware and real-world usage can make any device go from zero to hero in no time. I suspect this might be the case with this router.

At least for now, I would say give the new router a shot, especially if you have a large home with a lot of devices or are lucky enough to have a Wi-Fi 6 device. Just don’t expect any miracles, and get ready to beg Comcast for your old router if you aren’t satisfied. As for myself, I am going to keep testing it and write another review a month from now, I have a feeling this device will get better with time—or at least I hope. But for now, at least for me, it fell short.

Harry J. Kazianis is a Senior Director at the Center for the National Interest and Executive Editor of their publishing arm, the National Interest. His work and ideas have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, USA Today, The Week, The Hill, the American Conservative and many other outlets across the political spectrum. Harry enjoys writing about technology issues and products from a real-world perspective, having previously worked in the telecommunications industry from 2000-2011. You can follow him (or yell at him) on Twitter: @Grecianformula.